


What It Means

by Moonrose91



Series: Definition of a Human [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Jane and Darcy will be in the next one...hopefully, M/M, Revenge, Sabotage, Team Bonding, sorry story shifted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-29
Updated: 2012-08-09
Packaged: 2017-11-11 01:09:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/472781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonrose91/pseuds/Moonrose91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Since I've had a lot of people ask.</p><p>Also, I didn't come up with her last name. I was stuck and didn't want to name her 'Shields', because I felt that was too obvious.</p><p>So, anyway, my best friend, who is really into the 70s started giggling a bit and when I asked, it was explained about a famous mime duo from the 70s called "Shields and Yarnell".</p><p>I liked the idea so much that I chose it.</p><p>I feel really odd now, because I am a total nerd and such, but I found the humor in it. It doesn't help that one of the reasons my friend started giggling was because I said how Maggie was quiet.</p><p>So, that is it.</p><p>Oh, and the name "Maggie" comes from Coulson making a sort-of acronym based off the 'AGM' on her serial.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Something New

**Author's Note:**

> Since I've had a lot of people ask.
> 
> Also, I didn't come up with her last name. I was stuck and didn't want to name her 'Shields', because I felt that was too obvious.
> 
> So, anyway, my best friend, who is really into the 70s started giggling a bit and when I asked, it was explained about a famous mime duo from the 70s called "Shields and Yarnell".
> 
> I liked the idea so much that I chose it.
> 
> I feel really odd now, because I am a total nerd and such, but I found the humor in it. It doesn't help that one of the reasons my friend started giggling was because I said how Maggie was quiet.
> 
> So, that is it.
> 
> Oh, and the name "Maggie" comes from Coulson making a sort-of acronym based off the 'AGM' on her serial.

Tony was up to his elbows in something.

 

It was a machine of some sort and…well, Bruce wasn’t sure what it was, but Tony had been working on it for nearly a week (he started the day after Dumbo movie night) and there was no guarantee that Tony had eaten during that time, or even had water.

 

Tony was frighteningly resilient for someone who had a hole in their chest.

 

“Tony?” he called softly as he stepped forward, watching as Tony acknowledged him with a low hum, the movement of his arms saying he was twisting something deep within the contraption. “What are you building?” Bruce asked, deciding that maybe that would be the best way to urge him out of the garage.

 

“Dismantling. Sort-of. I found one of my old robots in storage and had him shipped here. His name is Hum. He stopped working when I was…twenty-five. I kept fixing him, but he kept breaking down. I’m thinking, if I do a good rewiring, he will be fine,” Tony explained, even as he carefully pulled out, taking parts and wiring, and even a board with him.

 

He carefully set it on the table next to the robot and Bruce noted that he was built along the lines of Dummy and You, only smaller. He seemed to have a deep love of that design.

 

Bruce listened as Tony continued to explain Hum’s purpose (apparently, it was to help keep the others in line, along with being an extra pair of hands), but he had often shorted out or even broken down completely. Tony sighed a little, grease covering him. “What day is it?” he asked.

 

“Friday. So, I have been instructed to haul you out of the lab so you can get cleaned up and join everyone for dinner. Pepper is coming, which means she gets to choose the movie. And Maggie is still coming down,” Bruce answered.

 

“Ah. How is our little mime?” he questioned.

 

“Don’t tease the girl for her name. And I don’t know. She’s kept to herself for most of the week. Steve said she appeared when Clint was making breakfast. He likes to make hardboiled eggs and toast when it is his turn so we had no eggs for the next few hours until the eggs appeared through science in the fridge,” Bruce stated.

 

Tony cackled a bit at that, even as he stood up. “Give me five minutes,” he responded as he began to head for the door.

 

“I’ll tell Coulson that,” Bruce answered.

 

Tony nodded as he walked up. He was ready in ten for dinner, but no one actually expected him there in five minutes. Maggie was sitting at the table, holding onto a mug, while everyone else was eating fish with a side of mac and cheese.

 

The coughing fit that erupted, even as she twisted away to keep her face away from everyone, burying it in her shoulder.

 

“If she’s sick, I don’t want her near me,” Tony stated, even as Pepper gave him a look.

 

“It’s just a cough. Dr. Banner already confirmed it,” Coulson stated, even as he insured that Tony was not sitting near Maggie. Clint grinned at the girl, who focused entirely on her mug.

 

That night, she went to bed instead of staying for movie night and they watched some old black and white films, obviously in old classic kick.

 

That and Pepper loved _Casablanca_.

 

They would have gone on to play card games, when the call for them to Assemble went out.


	2. The Sound of Silence

“Why is it giant fluffy bunnies? What did we do to deserve giant fluffy bunnies?” Tony questioned as he flew through the air, twisting and turning around buildings while white, giant, fluffy, killer _bunnies with laser eyes_.

 

Tony feels that his question deserves to be answered.

 

 _“Maybe because Doom was feeling bored?”_ Clint questioned, even as he shot the arrow in a spot, that hinge, at the back of a bunny’s neck and it explodes, taking out two more bunnies with it.

 

 _“Hawkeye, stop doing that until we give you the all clear!”_ Rogers ordered and there is a sigh that sound suspiciously like Coulson.

 

“Cap, if Katniss there (The snarl of _“Stop calling me that!”_ from Clint is brutally ignored) didn’t listen to you the first _three times_ , I don’t think he’s going to listen to you now,” Tony stated as he blasted another bunny in the face, noting that the laser eyebeams couldn’t catch him if he went at it, straight for the nose. This information he shared around and now the bunnies were being horribly dismantled left and right.

 

Tony finished off the last one, this one screeching a little as it caves. “I don’t like that,” Tony stated, having JARVIS scanning it. He carefully looked through it, finding that, amongst the melted wiring, the ruptured metal, he carefully pulled out…something.

 

“Sir, I cannot read the inside of this box,” JARVIS announced.

 

Tony sighed and turned it over in his hands.

 

Well, that’s why his lab was for.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

The debriefing was quicker than usual, since it was after midnight when they all were finished being patched up and cleaned up before the debriefing. Tony announced he found the box and was going to pour over it to figure out what it was.

 

“Too damaged to be of use now,” he added as he tossed it from hand to hand.

 

It was about the size of a rubix cube, maybe a little bigger, and all black. He sighed over it and immediately poured over it in the lab. For the first time ever, he had a headache as the sun began to pour over the sky. He rubbed his temples and headed up, relief flooding his veins as the headache began to ease off slightly.

 

Maybe he just needed to get out of the garage air.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

The next two weeks went from just Tony getting horrible headaches to, eventually, everyone in the Tower. Maggie kept to her room after she had wandered out, muttering under her breath and trying to go downstairs, which everyone declared to be a Bad Idea.

 

Coulson wasn’t the only one who had taken their responsibility for Maggie seriously, though the agent was definitely the one who took most of the weight of it.

 

And the headaches were starting to make Tony so nauseous that he was throwing up at least once a day, if not more. His nose bled on occasion too, along with Natasha’s and, when they saw Maggie when forced out of her room (and she was starting to get more gaunt as time passed), she was always pressing her hands to her nose, the nose bleeds popping up on occasion.

 

Coulson was busy touching up everyone’s bloody noses. “I don’t understand. Clint, have you seen anything in the vents?”

 

“Just twitching spider-bots,” Clint answered.

 

Tony shoved Coulson’s hand away. “What? My babies are shorting out?” he asked, ignoring how Coulson hissed at him to stop moving around so he could do a quick zap to close up the fine blood vessels in Tony’s nose.

 

Natasha and Maggie had already sat through their share.

 

“Yeah. I keep finding them. I pull them out of the vent and, once they are better, they clamber back up on their own. Except Lulu. Lulu’s disappeared,” Clint answered.

 

Before Tony could respond, Coulson managed to stop the nosebleed. He sighed and pulled back. “Stop naming the spider-bots Clint,” Coulson said.

 

“I only named the ones that like to climb on me, aside from Lulu. Lulu’s the one that has the different colored leg,” Clint stated.

 

Maggie twitched at that, even as Tony’s eyes widened. “One of my babies is _missing_?” he squawked out, sliding off his stool.

 

The panic cut short with Natasha hissing out a colorful curse in Russian that made Maggie duck down slightly. They turned to find her nose was bleeding again.

 

“We’re going to medical. Barton, watch Maggie,” Coulson stated, hauling Natasha up before he headed for the elevator.

 

Maggie looked up at that, before she tried to follow. Steve stopped her this time, carefully lifting her up and back up onto her seat. “Coulson,” she protested, her voice cracking slightly from disuse.

 

She slumped a little and plunked her head onto the counter, covering her ears. She looked tempted to curl up on the counter itself, her bare feet curling up around the bars of the stool.

 

“Okay, okay, we need to start figuring out…oh, shit,” Tony answered before he rushed to the nearest bathroom.

 

Maggie flinched at the sound, and smell, of vomit filled the air. “Okay, when did this all start?” Steve asked.

 

Thor was in Asgard, probably a good thing since he had missed the giant robot bunnies. Maggie stared at the wall before she huffed and left, stumbling off to her room. Tony finished throwing up, and groaned.

 

“I think we need to take Tony to medical as well,” Bruce stated.

 

“I’d rather die,” Tony answered from the bathroom.

 

Clint rolled his eyes. “I agree with that statement,” he answered, before he rubbed his forehead with his thumb at the exact midway point in an up and down fashion.

 

Tony hadn’t left the bathroom and had dissolved into whining about death and how he was dying and how he wouldn’t make it.

 

Steve just pinched the bridge of his nose with a low sigh, wondering what he had done to deserve such teammates.


	3. The Walls Are White

They don’t make it another hour after Tony’s declarations of dying before the remaining Avengers haul Maggie and Tony into SHIELD medical. Natasha is trying to escape, but her inner ear seems to be off, considering that she’s not exactly getting out of bed easily.

 

The other Avengers, who are not throwing up or being carried like a sack of potatoes over a teammates shoulder (Steve is carrying Tony while Bruce steadies Maggie, who is clinging to the bucket they gave her for dear life), are relieved to feel their headaches have cleared, but the three others are still miserable. Maggie is put in with Natasha, while Tony is corralled in a private room and has Clint hovering over him.

 

“What happened?” Coulson asked.

 

“Maggie threw up. She came and told us shortly after it happened and…and well, then her nose began bleeding again and she had to throw up in the kitchen sink,” Bruce explained.

 

Coulson’s eyes narrowed slightly.

 

They could tell he was trying to piece together the problem the team was having. Headaches, nausea, and nosebleeds. Three members of the Tower were down, Tony was whining next door (they could hear him through the connecting door), and the other Avengers looked relieved to be out of the Tower. And then there was a crash and Tony stumbled into the room, ignoring it. “JARVIS, repeat that,” he ordered, holding out his phone.

 

“My security cameras have become o-o-off sir,” JARVIS stated.

 

“And so is your voice. What is in my Tower, hurting my babies and my AI?” Tony demanded.

 

“A-a-a-a-a-ttttttempting to scan, sir, but something i-i-i-i-i-issssss interfering with a majority of my systems,” JARVIS answered and they heard Maggie empty her stomach again, even as Steve was force to help support Tony, who was unable to stand on his own two feet, skin practically gray.

 

“Get him back to bed,” Coulson ordered and turned to the other Avengers.

 

Clint perked up while Bruce sighed. “Search the place from top to bottom sir?” Clint questioned.

 

“Correct Agent Barton. Dr. Banner, if you would please assist him. I’ll be along once I am sure all the children are snug in their beds, with visions of sugarplums to dance in their heads,” Coulson answered calmly.

 

“Is it already after Thanksgiving?” Clint muttered.

 

“Yes. Remember? It ended in a food fight,” Natasha answered, even as she settled under the covers.

 

Maggie, however, looked up with confusion.

 

Tony groaned. “God, how does she not know that?” he asked, even as Steve continued to haul him into his room.

 

JARVIS was still trying to stutter out things, and it was obvious Tony was listening but not wanting to believe.

 

“I’ll go with them,” Steve stated and Coulson hesitated, before nodding, and ordering the nurses to move Tony into the room with the now half-asleep Natasha and the nausea-free Maggie.

 

He took the bucket and had it washed out before giving it back.

 

And still she clutched at it like it was a stuffed animal.

 

Once everyone was asleep (Tony clutching his phone, JARVIS’s stuttering voice still filling the air, Natasha just curled up tight, a pillow over her head, and Maggie somehow still holding the bucket), Coulson sighed and left, leaving agents who wouldn’t be starstruck by the Avengers to watch over them and keep them from leaving.

 

Not that they could stop Natasha, but they could stop the other two.

 

Hopefully that would be enough to keep Natasha there.

 

Whether she would admit it or not, she did have a soft spot for Tony.


	4. Searching High and Low

Steve winced as his headache slowly built up, kneeling down to get a look at the decorative glass that…

 

“Bruce, did this glass have a crack in it before?” he questioned, even as he stood. Bruce came over, shaking his head slightly and knelt down, both consciously ignoring how the Other Guy gleamed back, though it seemed he was in pain.

 

“No, I don’t think so. We’ll have to tell Tony. He’ll probably throw our names into a hat to see who smashes it the rest of the way,” Bruce stated, even as he stood up, rubbing his skull.

 

“Do you think it might be something the ducts?” Clint asked, as he dropped down, cradling one of the four-legged spiderbots in his hands. Despite how he acted, it was obvious that he cared deeply for Tony’s ‘babies’.

 

Well, at least the ones he had named with a gentle consideration for their personalities, omitting Lulu who had gotten her name merely through the off-colored leg. The spiderbot twitched in his hands, before curling up, flipping over and climbing up Clint before settling on his head.

 

“I don’t want to know how it does that. Have you seen anything?” Steve answered.

 

“Not yet, but I haven’t checked everywhere,” Clint responded, even as the spiderbot let its red eye track around the room, taking people in. It let out a high pitched whine and jumped off his head, landing on the ground and skittering away as Clint pulled himself back up into the vents.

 

Clint looked down and stared. “I’ll take that as something is definitely wrong in the vents,” he stated and took off before Steve could order him back.

 

“M-m-m-m-mister R-r-r-rogers, my systems are unable to run the scans needed,” JARVIS reported.

 

He sounded slightly better.

 

“Can you bring up the security cameras?” Steve asked, only to find that they were jumpy. State of the art or not, they were trembling and jumping slightly.

 

It did nothing to prepare them for the crash that happened in one of the back rooms. Steve tore off after the sound, followed quickly by Bruce to find Clint on the floor, trying to get back up, but unable. “The vent just gave out from under me!” he exclaimed as he looked up.

 

The three didn’t notice the fine cracks that were appearing in the glass coffee table.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Coulson had started on the lower levels, trying to find something, anything, that had changed since the Avengers had been attacked. He let out a low sigh and frowned slightly when he found _cracks in the walls_. He ran his fingers along, through the dust that was collecting, and frowned a bit.

 

This building was used for SI personnel, but they had weekends off. He looked around and went to the maintenance room to find the inbox filled with complaints about how the computers were shorting out. However, according to the notes, maintenance couldn’t find out what it was.

 

He continued looking, finding that the Avengers weren’t the only ones suffering from headaches, nosebleeds, and nausea, smiling a bit at how well Tony took care of those under his care.

 

The health package was amazing, and the HR person, who collected these, had written up something for Tony to read when he would resurface about shutting down the Tower and having it searched top to bottom for anything growing in one of the vents or in a back corner.

 

Coulson let out a sigh when he heard the elevator ding and he looked up to find Steve helping Clint off the elevator. “What happened?” he demanded.

 

“The vent gave out beneath me and I went crashing down. Bruce is going to be looking it over, but…I have no clue. Maybe Thor accidentally weakened it sometime before the big bunny fight,” Clint responded, keeping his weight off his, probably broken, ankle. Coulson sighed and stood up, brushing off his dusty fingers against the suit pant leg.

 

He hands Steve the keys. “Take him to SHIELD hospital. Make sure he’s in the same room as the other three. And make sure Natasha is still there. She’ll be stubborn when she wakes up,” he stated.

 

Steve nodded as he took the keys and helped Clint outside. Coulson grit his teeth slightly and went back. He began to look at the computers and noticed that there was some fine cracks in the casings. He ran his fingers along the cracks and stood up, continuing along, finding more and more cracks, some small, some more obvious and hissed in pain when the electric lock to the stairway to Tony’s lab shocked him.

 

He shook his hand and stared.

 

“What did Tony do?” he muttered, running his hand through his hair, worried.

 

His gut was telling to break down the door. However, he couldn’t. He needed to go check up on Bruce, who was still there, and try to find another way down. With that, he took the stairs, ignoring that this will exhaust him.

 

He refuses to get caught in the elevator.

 

As he makes his way up, he pauses when he sees dust, finding cracks shortly thereafter and then slowly, hesitantly, reaches out to touch the metal of the staircase before snatching his hand back in shock.

 

 _It was vibrating_!

 

With that, he surged upward, hoping to find Bruce quickly.

 

He didn’t want the man up there for longer than necessary. Besides, he needed the good doctor’s help in seeing if they could find a device attached to the Tower that was causing this. And maybe even do research to find out what it was.

 

So help them all, he was going to seriously consider murdering whoever had put his Avengers in danger.


	5. The Blood That Flows

Bruce and Coulson poured over whatever they could. They didn’t dare try the vents, especially after what happened with Clint, though he found himself collecting out spiderbots, who were steadfastly refusing to enter the vents again. “Do you think it is something in the vents?” Bruce asked as Coulson caught a spiderbot who  _sliced through the metal of the vent_  with the laser to escape, uncaring of any damage it would take.

 

“No. They would be destroying it then,” Coulson answered, settling the spiderbot on the ground.

 

The response of said spiderbot was to take a leap and somehow attach itself to his pant leg.

 

“I think…he likes you,” Bruce stated, even as he paused next to a fine window.

 

Coulson followed his gaze and stepped forward. “I would step back,” he stated and Bruce did so, just in time as when Coulson tapped the center.

 

For a moment, the glass wall seemed to hang before the fine glass collapsed down onto itself and spilling out onto the glass coffee table room and into the hallway that lead to Hawkeye’s elevator floor. It was rather impressive, considering that all Coulson had to do was tap it and Bruce stared down at it.

 

"This is starting to narrow down the relative things this could be," Coulson stated and Bruce gave a nod in agreement.

 

“Why did he give Clint glass decorations anyway as markers for the way to his rooms?” Bruce asked.

 

“To throw people off. Steve’s markers have nothing to do with him, Thor’s go up a stairway, Natasha either has really good copies or the real deals of dead artists that aren’t Russian decorating hers. Tony did it to help throw people off,” Coulson answered, not bothering to explain how Clint rarely used the elevator system if he didn’t have to.

 

Clint always prefered the vents and the spiderbots loved him too much.

 

Bruce gave a nod at the explanation and sighed, rubbing his ears.

 

“What’s wrong?” Coulson asked.

 

“Nothing,” Bruce answered too quickly.

 

Coulson glared a bit before he carefully moved forward and gently held Bruce’s face in his hands to turn Bruce’s head slightly.

 

And promptly cursed.

 

“We’re going to medical, now,” Coulson ordered, and Bruce resisted the urge to make a face like a two year old.

 

“Why?”

 

“Your ears are bleeding,” Coulson answered, even as he began to lead them down.

 

The Tower was eerily silent, without JARVIS or the other bots around. Behind them, a vase cracked violently.


	6. Listen and Learn

Steve tightened his grip on Clint's waist as he helped him into SHIELD medical, only to find it in an uproar. "What's going on?" he asked of one of the nurses, who looked more frantic than usual.

"One of our patients went missing from the Avenger room," she explained.

Clint groaned lowly. "God, Natasha skipped again," he muttered while Steve resisted the urge to shake his head.

Natasha hated medical more than Clint and Tony combined. Clint hated it because they often just tried to keep him over night, just in case, and Tony because they kept trying to hide their interest in his arc reactor and failing.

Horribly.

“Oh, that’s her name? I hadn’t known. She was in the room when we checked on the group about an hour ago, but when the nurse came to see how they were doing, she was gone. Poor little thing,” the nurse answered, already moving to search, when Clint stopped her, nearly toppling over.

“Little thing?” he questioned.

“Yes. The girl, cute, small,” the nurse said, confused.

“Red hair?” he asked.

“No, she’s still there. Still asleep,” the nurse answered.

Clint let out a curse and the woman stared. “Maggie. Her name is Maggie and she’s gone missing. Coulson is going to be _very_ unhappy with this,” Clint answered, letting her go instantly.

The nurse, a pretty blonde woman, squeaked and ran off, probably to go tell her superiors about this development and Steve quickly pulled Clint into a fireman’s carry. “Put me down! We’ll splint me up and then we’ll go looking for her!” Clint exclaimed, even as Steve ignored him.

First, he’d get Clint to medical and get his ankle looked at.

Then he would go find the missing Maggie.

He wondered how she had managed to get past the security.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Maggie released her brown hair from the twist knot and shook it out, letting it fall in waves down past her shoulders.

The supply closets had been filled with spare clothes and she had easily found them. The ventilation shafts had been dustier than expected, but looking like everyone else had gotten her out.

The noises that were so invasive high above were worse on the ground. It pounded down on her already aching head and made her want to scream. She could hear the car alarms three blocks over going off as someone bumped into them. She could hear the screaming arguments in the apartment buildings, and there was a woman singing in a nightclub.

Most of these things just confused her.

Before Coulson, before having a _name_ , it had just been one task after another. A set of rules and regulations, a set order to her day. Eat, work, review, eat, work, review, eat, work, review, sleep.

Every day, without a change, since waking up in the pod. Since the day they had laughed and cheered.

Since the day she had learned not to volunteer information when it wasn’t asked.

Maggie picked up speed as she walked through the streets, wishing desperately she knew how to get to where she needed to go from here. She twitched her head to the side, trying to find…

There!

She nearly squealed with joy upon pinpointing the high pitched whine that had taken over the Tower since the day she had her cough. It had turned out to be an allergic reaction to the dust, or maybe it was because she was used to more water and wasn’t drinking it, unsure of the rules in her new life.

The new schedule.

It confused her and made her wary to do anything.

And most of the…stuff they had and ate she didn’t recognize. She missed sandwiches. And eggs.

White oval things with the hard yellow circle in the center. Only Clint had made those.

She snarled at herself for getting distracted (something that always happened; a sound, a word, the woman who hummed three floors up until they silenced her). Finding the high pitched sound again, she immediately took off.

She had to pause at places, figuring out how to get across the street without getting in trouble, before she found herself back at the tower.

The garage was closed off, so she would have to either pick the lock (and with people walking all around, that was not a good choice) or head around the back. With a quick glance, she immediately headed around, looking for a door or, anything really, that was out of sight.

She found a service entrance and hissed when it shocked her.

“Bad,” she scolded before she began to search again, only to realize the only other way in was through the window.

Backing up a few yards, and ignoring how her ears were ringing unpleasantly once more as the sound hummed through the building, she concentrated. Her eyes tracked a few things she could use and she shoved off, running at full speed to catch the edge of the wall and propel herself up to the window ledge. She ran her fingers along the break, noting that it was a bathroom window, and flicked her finger at the weak point, having it shatter inward before she slipped in, dropping onto the ground.

The glass bit into the palms of her hands, but she ignored it, stumbling up before she managed to step up onto the sinks so she didn’t do the same to her feet.

The shoes from the hospital didn’t seem up to the task of walking over glass.

She began to step across and hopped down, opening the door, noting that she was on the first floor bathroom.

Employee bathroom.

She turned her head from side to side, trying to catch the sound, before she realized it was echoing too much.

Maggie let out a frustrated sound and scowled, before she saw the fire extinguisher, recognizing it from her investigations of Coulson’s floor. Her head twitched to the side in consideration, listening to the echoing, screaming, whine around her, flooding the building.

“Tony’s lab,” she stated, and grabbed it.

She looked around until she found a door marked ‘Private’ and stormed over. “Sorry,” she apologized and immediately began to slam the extinguisher at the spot where the door hinges would be until it bent under the force, though it wore her out and made her feel dizzy. With that pressure hold, she looked for a piece of metal to shove in so she could pry it open, digging through desks and other places before she found something that could work.

Shoving it in, she pried until the door creaked and strained, slowing bending under her sheer force, while she cursed herself for not just going through the elevator shaft.

Managing to get the door open enough, on the wrong end, to get in, she slipped through, ignoring how it tugged on her shoulder and how she left dark red hand prints everywhere, wondering why she was doing that, distantly.

Maggie let out a cry and shoved her hands over her ears as everything reverberated around her. When she managed to get ahold of herself, she was curled up on the ground. Without removing her hands, she began to move like something without arms or legs as she shifted across the ground, wincing when she got to stairs.

Relaxing her body as much as she could, she allowed herself to roll over, thinking about anything but how much it hurt. As it was getting louder, and worse, she was figuring that she was right in that it was in Tony’s lab. She forced herself to stand once she got to the glass and activated the panel.

She typed a few things experimentally, ignoring JARVIS’s ‘access denied’, wincing at the way he stuttered.

With that knowledge, she remembered the sound of the typing she had heard and Bruce’s face flashed across the screen before she forced herself in. The sound had her scrambling at her ears and crying, trying to dig the high pitched whine out of her senses.

She ignored the way her fingernails cut into her ears, or the warmth that was staining them. Her hands shook a bit before she scrambled for something heavy. She had to find what was making the sound, before she couldn’t even see straight.

Dragging herself through the lab, she found an odd black cube sitting on the desk, open. She wondered if the odd ringing was caused by the thing to, but instead grabbed it and hauled it to the floor, shaking from the effort and the pain that was starting to make its way through her body.

Gritting her teeth, she began to slam the heavy thing with the curve at the end, like it was meant to grasp something, into the cube. The heavy thing hurt to lift, but it did the job after hitting the cube twice, the sound tapering off. She shook violently, warmth sliding from her ears and down her neck, even as she stared blankly at the cube.

She hoped Tony wouldn’t be mad.

She felt odd, and dizzy. She moved to get up, only to find herself on the ground. She curled up a bit, ignoring how JARVIS seemed to be sounding better, but it didn’t matter. Instead, she just collapsed against the ground, exhausted and trembling.

Where was all this dark red stuff coming from anyway?

When she opened her eyes again, it was to Tony kneeling next to her with an odd look on his face.


	7. Chapter 7

It had been two days since learning that the black cube Tony had picked up had been a trap, for Tony and the rest of the Avengers, but mainly Tony.

Turns out Doom was pissed at the fact that Tony kept disabling his robots through hacking, which, naturally, meant that he had to insure that Tony's source of that was eliminated. He had attacked in the home, where they weren't safe and never thought they were safe. Tony had gone through and found all the places the electric systems had taken a beating, but contracters had to come in, again, to fix everything.

Including the door to his lab.

"I kind-of want to know how she managed to break into the door with a fire extinquisher and a hammer," Tony stated, glancing over at where Maggie was sitting quietly for the SHIELD doctor, who kept trying to chat at her, only to find the girl twisting away from her each time with an annoyed glare.

Ever since finding the cube and smashing it with one of Tony's wrenches, she had been showing her displeasure with loud noises. Or any noise. She's taking to hiding under SHIELD's standard issue and refusing to come out. Knocking on the door sends her careening into the headboard or off the bed.

Clint is twitchy and irritated over his sprained and/or twisted ankle. He's not giving a straight answer, but he later admits to Steve he found her rocking back and forth, crying with her hands slammed over her ears.

In a closet.

In the very darkest basement of SHIELD.

"It's almost like she can hear everything going on in the building," he commented.

"The doctor's say that her eardrums are just oversensitized, but it will get better," Bruce corrected softly, even as they watched her twist away. However, this time she kicks out, an expert kick, fluid in form, that hits the female doctor in the ribs.

It is, in essence, a temper tantrum, but the woman stumbles back in shock, one hand flying to her ribs while Maggie scrambles back, away from her, fear and irritation on her face. Natasha is already striding in to take care of it, because Coulson is taking care of the paperwork to tempomarily move the Avengers across the coast.

"I am voting for Malibu. Private beach access," Tony stated.

"That's great Tony," Steve muttered, though Clint was perking up.

Tony rolled his eyes. "I meant all of us, Cap. Let's get stuff. Thor already knows to meet us there. Or is already there. I am having JARVIS show him around either way. They get along rather well. He says it is like having Heimdall close, whatever that means," Tony answered, flipping open his phone.

Steve figures this is as close as Tony will ever get to saying 'sorry about putting everyone who was ever in the Tower at risk because I brought a shiny new toy home without knowing what it did', and accepts it.

"If they'll let us in the building. How did you explain the blood anyway?" Steve asked as he watched Natasha softly talk Maggie down.

Or maybe threaten her, because the scared look isn't leaving her face.

Maybe Bruce or Clint should take care of this, but for all his wisecracking, Clint isn't good with people (exceptions are made, but he still gets stilted at times, as if unsure of how to proceed, even with Coulson). Bruce is tired and he seems to be internally berating himself and then it just boils down to the fact that there is only one woman on the team and that is Natasha.

The doctor has left, however, and Maggie is sitting on the bed, not looking at Natasha, while the red-headed woman stares passively down at her.

"I think Malibu might be a good idea," Steve agreed and Tony beamed.

Now, if they could get to the west coast without incuring psychological scars, all would be well.

Steve was already starting to doubt what had been such a good idea two seconds ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's this.
> 
> Um...what did you guys think?
> 
> I got the idea from an Alphas episode, with the sonic guy in Season 1.
> 
> His worked much faster and, I'm thinking, if Tony had put it up with the Avengers, it would have been discovered much faster. However, it wasn't at 'property damage' levels for awhile and it built up slowly.
> 
> And, in case anyone was wondering, yes the Other Guy and Bruce could both hear it.
> 
> And yes, I borrowed that from the movie, 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'.

**Author's Note:**

> All right, the Shout-Outs from Chapter 6 of Serial Tune.
> 
> cute little four-legged spider bots with a solitary red eye = Doctor Who, S1, Ep2, of New-Who fame. They are basically the bots that Cassandra released into Platform 1, only they are Tony's.
> 
> kill him and have everyone think it was an undetected heart defect = Warehouse 13, the Walter Sykes episodes. His preferred method of killing people.
> 
> ...Yes, they were that tiny.


End file.
